


Unspoken Needs

by Shadadukal



Category: Sanctuary (TV)
Genre: Community: sfa_pornbattle, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-07
Updated: 2011-05-07
Packaged: 2017-10-19 02:50:44
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/196022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadadukal/pseuds/Shadadukal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Helen and Nikola both need hugs. Or something.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unspoken Needs

**Author's Note:**

> Set after 3x11 "Pax Romana".
> 
> Many thanks to grav_ity for the beta!
> 
> Written for the second sfa_pornbattle for the prompts: shower, bondage, compassion not pity.

"Why do you even keep such a dangerous creature here?" Nikola complained

"Do you think it would be better in the wild where it can attack anybody?" Helen pointed out.

"It attacked me here!" Nikola exclaimed, quite furious at the situation.

"I'm really sorry its habitat security failed as you were walking by, but at least we were able to contain it again quickly," Helen said in a mild tone, clearly failing to understand the full extent of his predicament.

"Forget about the abnormal. It's this freezing water that is going to kill me."

"I'm sorry about that too," Helen apologized, "but it's the best way we've found of removing Gary's secretions without causing undue pain."

"Gary?!?" Nikola almost choked on the name.

"Its scientific name is just too long and complicated," Helen answered stiffly, as if she couldn't quite accept the fact she had given in to the name the children had undoubtedly come up with.

"Are you about done?" Nikola asked, not wanting to think about the creature that had caused his predicament any longer.

"No, I'm sorry, Nikola."

"Stop telling me you're sorry. I'm standing here, naked under this bloody freezing water, and you're wearing a wetsuit designed for diving in the Arctic."

"In order to treat you," Helen replied calmly.

"Please hurry up," he said, some desperation seeping in his voice.

"I'm not hurting you, am I?" Helen asked worriedly.

"No, but I may just never be able to recover if I stay here much longer."

"Don't be so melodramatic. You're not even in the first stage of hypothermia yet."

"Getting there," he said, and just then his teeth started to chatter. "See, you've jinxed me."

"Oh really, Nikola, you know that isn't possible."

"I'm not going to set foot here ever again," he managed even through the clatter of his teeth.

"In the shower?" she said, her voice sounding just a little too innocent.

"That's not what I meant and you know it. Your Sanctuaries are going to kill me and I'm not as durable as I used to be."

She stopped her slow, careful movements on his back.

"Helen?"

He could still feel her hands on his back, but just barely as he was so cold.

"Helen, if I stay under this freezing water longer than I need to, I'm never going to thaw out. And there's also the part where you need to save my life."

"You wouldn't actually die from the secretions, per se," Helen replied softly as she resumed her work.

He was feeling far too tired to answer her. He didn't want to go through another metamorphosis he didn't want. Being human sucked enough as it was. The silence that followed as Helen continued her work was only broken by his teeth chattering.

At long last, she was done, and he felt like a human-shaped icicle. Helen wrapped him in a mountain of blankets as soon as he was out from under the spray. She gave him some warm tea to drink that someone, probably the big hairy one, had prepared and left on the nearby bench. Helen left him shivering under the swath of blankets for a couple of minutes before she returned clad in a bathrobe.

"You got wet despite the suit?" he asked, teeth still clattering.

She didn't answer his question, but took a syringe out of her bathrobe pocket.

"This is the last thing to combat the effect of the secretions," she said, injecting him. "Come, there's still one last thing I need to do," she said, taking one of his hands.

To his surprise, she didn't lead him to the infirmary, which was immediately next to the basement's shower room, but to the elevator. They didn't encounter any of Helen's employees in the hallways, which he was grateful for, wandering around in a survival blanket as he was.

"Helen?" he asked, having recognized the corridor they were in as the one leading to Helen's bedroom.

"Hush, Nikola, we need to warm you up."

"I can do that on my own," Nikola pointed out.

Helen was once more trying to give him something in order to tie him to her, in order to keep him from disappearing again as he had when he first lost his vampire traits. For a time, the map had been enough, but now it was solved and he hadn't got so much as a whiff of the technology it had promised him. He was tired of it. Since he wasn't a vampire anymore, he didn't feel like he belonged here anymore, alongside another member of the Five, despite his magnetic ability. It would be better if he left and never came back, if he lived out those pitiful few decades he had left in peace. Druitt has disappeared again, clearly intending to stay away. He would either drug himself out of his mind again, or take up killing as a sport once more. Johnny knew he didn't belong near Helen anymore. And the same was true for Nikola, which was why he didn't want to accept what Helen wanted to give him, especially because he knew perfectly well she had selfish reasons for her actions. So he resisted the tug of her hand.

"Helen, I'll be fine. I'll start a fire in my room and add a few more blankets to my bed, and I'll be fine."

"I thought your condition was much more serious than that," she said, amused.

Helen clearly thought he was playing, had failed to recognize his seriousness. Or she had understood but had decided to ignore it, secure in the knowledge that she could persuade him.

"No, Helen," he said, extracting his hand from hers, and stepping back. "I can warm up on my own."

Nikola turned around, and Helen didn't follow him as he slowly made his way to his own bedroom, his movements still sluggish.

+++

Nikola woke up after not enough sleep, feeling some discomfort in his arms, which were tied up to the headboard with thick leather straps. The leather bit into his wrists, reminding him of his weaknesses. With his dulled instincts, he hadn't noticed her manipulations of him until it was too late. Before, he'd have heard her coming before she entered the room. His legs were free but Helen was straddling his thighs, making it difficult for him to move. He focused his gaze on her, staring into her eyes even though she was completely naked, keeping his face a mask.

"Tell me you don't want this and I'll release you," she whispered, laying her hands on his bony hips, the touch not meant to arouse, but to comfort, a steadying weight anchoring him to a life worth living.

Admittedly, he was feeling much warmer. The fire was blazing in the chimney, a sure sign Helen had stoke it at some point since coming into his room.

"I've warmed up," he said.

"Yes, I can see that," she answered, moving her right hand up his chest, fingers stroking where his heart was beating.

"Helen," he sighed, "I don't need your pity. I really don't want you to sleep with me out of pity. Or because you want to convince me to keep in touch."

"Do you really think you can walk away from what we are?"

She was getting angry now, the picture of righteous rage she had presented all those times back at Oxford when her sex had precluded her full participation. Her skin flushed full of the life and determination that the Source Blood had given her when she'd used it to tie them all together. Nikola shook his head.

"We're finished. You're the only one, the only one who hasn't accepted the truth. John is mad and there is nothing you can do for him. And I'm..." he didn't finish, just shook his head again.

"Life doesn't end just because one suffers a setback, Nikola. I thought you of all people understood this. Why are you giving up now?"

"I'm old, old and weary and mortal."

"There may be ways that you can at least recover your longevity, if not your vampirism. Together, we can figure it out."

"Now you would support me in this?" He couldn't believe she was being truthful.

"As much as my work matters to me..." she began, and then she paused for a few seconds."Friends and family matter more, Nikola. And you're...well, somewhere between the two."

He raised an eyebrow at her.

"You've had a really bad day, a few bad days even, and before that, difficult weeks and months. I want to make you feel better. I can't give you back your vampirism right this very minute, but I can comfort you. And that's not pity, that's compassion."

"Helen..."

"I'll stop if you tell me to."

And then she moved down his body, spreading his legs to kneel between his calves. He kept watching her, looking into her eyes. He didn't think he saw pity in them, but there was determination, and a tiny playful twinkle. He knew that twinkle would probably turn into a spark and more if he relaxed under her hands. Helen put her left hand on his right knee, running her other hand down his leg to firmly grip his left ankle. Nikola let her bend his leg, and raise it up. With her other hand, she started examining his toes one by one.

"What are you doing?" he said, bemused.

"Checking for frostbite," she answered, a small smile gracing her lips.

He couldn't help the laugh that spilled out.

"All right," he said.

"We'll fix it; we'll find a way, Nikola. You'll be a vampire again," Helen told him fervently. The way she said it, he knew she would find a way to make it happen.

Helen moved to cover his body with hers. She smiled, her face inches from his, and kissed him. He responded hungrily, wishing he could hold her to him, that he could run his hands through her soft brown curls. Still she was between his legs so he used them to bring her even closer.

It was her turn to laugh, and oh how he loved her laugh, always so full of life.

"I still need to check you're in good health," she teased.

And she did, running her hands all over his body, in touches meant to comfort and slowly arouse, her lips and tongue following the path of her hands. He let himself be transported into the pleasure she caused, and felt himself finally warm up fully to a normal body temperature. Still he did try to use his legs and feet as best he could to touch her as well, and he brushed his lips against her skin any time he could reach her, much to Helen's delight and amusement.

"Will you be good if I untie you?" she asked mischievously.

"Of course not, surely you know me well enough to know that after all these years," he smirked.

She laughed again, deep and throaty, straddling his chest and leaning forward to release his hands, her breasts dancing in front of his face. Nikola took a nipple in his mouth and sucked hard, Helen moaning delightfully above him as she massaged his wrists to return feelings to his hands.

"Sit up," she demanded, raising herself on her knees. He complied wordlessly, shoving most of the pillows aside to sit with his back against the headboard. She teased, taking only the tip of him inside her wet warmth. He rolled his eyes at her and she snickered, before sinking onto him fully. She didn't move at first, and he was hardly able to do so himself. Helen took his head between her hands, thumbs stroking his stubble-covered cheeks, and then kissed him slowly, exploring his mouth in delightful little swipes of her tongue. She started to move, a teasing leisured pace that soon became extremely frustrating.

"More," he moaned, breaking the kiss, not caring how needy he sounded.

Helen laughed again but quickened her pace.

"So impatient in your old age, Nikola." She winked at him.

He chuckled at that, ducking his head to nibble on her neck, making Helen gasp. His lips left butterfly kisses all the way to her ear, and then sucked her earlobe into his mouth. Helen dug her nails into his shoulders, panting in his ear, her rhythm now faltering as he slipped a hand between them. How he missed electricity, being able to do things to her with his fingertips that no other man, no other being could. Still he circled her clit with his fingers, teasing her breast, tweaking her nipple with his other hand. She was getting closer, fluttering around his cock. She bore down on him as her climax started and he let himself release inside her, his cry echoing Helen's.

She had buried her head in his neck as she came, hugging herself close against him, her breasts pressed against his chest. She was trembling now and, when he felt wetness fall on his shoulder, he understood that she was crying silently.

"Helen?" he asked gently, brushing her hair back behind her ears. She didn't acknowledge him at all, just kept crying. "Helen, please look at me."

She looked up suddenly then.

"Thank you for not leaving," she said. "Thank you for being home when I got back."

"Helen, how could I possibly have left without seeing with my own eyes that you were well again?" he murmured, still petting her hair in a soothing motion.

"I'm..." Helen began, but her voice broke, and she hid her face in his neck again.

"You're okay, Helen. I'm okay; we'll be fine. I'm sorry that I didn't realize you needed me tonight," he said, finally grasping that her insistence at getting him into bed had nothing to do with pity for him.

"No, I'm sorry," she mumbled against his neck. "I was..."

"Hush," he quieted her, knowing she didn't need to blame herself for anything at this moment. "It doesn't matter."

It took a few minutes for Helen to stop crying, a much needed release after weeks of pent-up worry. About her father, about her radiation sickness and impending death, about John, about so much more. And right now, he was the only one who could offer some comfort. James was gone, and none of the children could possibly understand the pains of a century and a half.

"Helen, that isn't the most comfortable position to sleep in, for either of us," he said, knowing they both needed proper rest.

"You're right," Helen agreed, sitting up, then moving off of him, his cock slipping from her body. He wished he could have remained inside her. She laid down on her side, her head resting on a pillow, hair fanning out behind her. Nikola rearranged the rest of the pillows and moved down the bed so he could draw the covers back up.

He settled on his back and Helen immediately moved to use his chest as a pillow, draping herself over him, her left leg hooking over both of his. Perhaps she wasn't entirely convinced he wouldn't leave in the dead of night after all. He did want to leave, but he would inevitably come back. Still he knew Helen needed him to be there when she woke up the next day.

He ran his hand through her hair, caressing the soft skin of her wrist with his other hand. Her fingers were splayed over his heart, her cheek warm against his skin.

"Good night, Helen", he said.

He felt her smile before she replied:

"Sweet dreams, Nikola."


End file.
